観客のみなさま / Dear audience.

We would like to invite you to an exciting art show that will once again bring art to the open air spaces of Tokyo. Our small festival is a continuation of the long-term project Hello Shinjuku, which was created thanks to the cooperation between the Japanese PUK Theatre and the Czech Alfa Theatre. Ahoj Shinjuku focuses on the revival of public space in the western centre of Tokyo. In 2021, the Ahoj Shinjuku festival was moved indoors due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Therefore, this year we would like to remind you of the festival program in the atrium of Department store Takashimaya.
Street art has a long history. It originated as an alternative to permanent art venues, which were intended for the “higher” art as well as the “upper” social classes. Artists who did not have access to these upper classes found their living space, as well as their audience, in the streets, marketplaces or restaurant halls. For example, European puppet theatre, which until the end of the 19th century was considered a decadent form of entertainment, also developed within street art. In the second half of the 20th century, street art found another dimension. Artists attempt to improve our environment, heavily influenced by pragmatic and stereotypical consumer capitalism, or colourless and suffocating socialism. The streets of New York have seen the emergence of a graffiti scene, culminating in, for example, the master of surprise Banksy; Barcelona’s iconic La Rambla offers a unique showcase of street styles; Prague’s Charles Bridge was the site of an endless spontaneous street art festival during the 1990s. Good street art has several basic premises: originality, immediacy, surprise, aesthetics, non-commercialism. And it has a fundamental effect: improving our environment.
After the year 2000, we also see a specific expansion of the notion of public space. Whereas in the past this was mainly understood as streets, parks or railway stations, after 2000 shopping centres are becoming an important public space worldwide. Perhaps symbolically, we are returning to the principle of medieval marketplaces. This effect affects the entire human population. We can already find groups of children in current generations spending weekends with their parents in shopping centres, teenagers using shopping centres as meeting places, and in hot areas as places to relax and cool off. The aesthetic level of shopping is still very low at the moment – stereotypical and unimaginative. The focus is mainly on selling and influencing the mindset of customers. In particular, the shopping centres built in the 1990s by Western European companies in post-socialist countries or shopping centres in developing countries are extremely aesthetically damaging.
Responsible companies, on the other hand, try to create an environment in shopping centres that can provide an imaginative and pleasant environment for a large number of people passing through. This is the line that our festival is following in collaboration with Department store Takashimaya. This year, we will offer the top Czech puppet theatre Alfa Theatre and its puppet version of the famous Mexican legend Mask of Zorro, and Tokyo’s best puppet theatre for children PUK Theatre and its charming performance for the youngest children Pukiti Chibi Umbrella Dance. We will also offer an interesting combination of bodypainting, dance and live music. Based on last year cooperation we have included to program a performance by our fellow actors on Oshima Island, White Moss, and from the same location a performance by a traditional Japanese drumming ensemble. As an added bonus, we are bringing an online version of the festival that will offer a reprise of top European puppet shows from the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Israel, Italy and Spain.
Best wishes for street art in Shinjuku and Oshima Island

Jakub Hora ( Alfa Theater )